When Will Wine Prices Go Down?

by James Oliver Cury

on 11/13/08 at 12:30 PM

If there's any silver lining to a recession, it's that prices for some consumables might fall. I'm looking forward to the day when I can go into a restaurant and order a decent bottle of wine for something less than three times what it costs at the store next door. It's not that I can't afford it. Or don't want to support my local eatery (which needs the markup to pay the rent). I just feel like a sucker every time I pay $45 for a $15 wine. And I know I can get OK bottles for even less than $15 at the supermarkets these days. But not for much less than that. (Note: Even the best bottles of beer, somehow, never cost as much as some crappy wines.)

Obviously, I am not alone in my dissatisfaction. The New York Times's Eric Asimov is keenly aware of the need for "value" wines. And so is the critic at Slate, whose article "Good News About the Recession" inspired this post.

Some questions: What's the highest price a value wine (or bargain) wine should cost at the local retailer? Must it be under $12? Under $15? Under $20? And what's the most the markup should be at a restaurant? Twice the retail cost? $20? Sliding scale? On a related note, has anyone seen wine prices drop at restaurants yet? I'm thirsty.

I've worked in restaurants my whole life and have seen all the numbers. Restaurants usually always mark up wine here in the mid west around twice the price they paid for it. I've tried getting good deals from my employers to purchase bottles of wine through them, thinking I could get a better deal than the public, but after looking over invoices, the prices the restaurant paid for the bottle was almost identical to the price at the local supermarket (sometimes the supermarket was cheaper). Second, you only get around 4 1/2 pours out of a bottle of wine, unless your frugal and cheap.

Freetom
02:55:05 PM on
12/02/08

Why doesn't anyone complain about $8 to $10 vodka drinks in a restaurant? The most expensive bottles only cost the upwards of $40 and they get at least 18 pours per bottle - do the math.

ferrismoses
12:59:27 AM on
11/14/08

I find this topic amusing when people "WHINE" about this topic. That's what restaurants do: they buy food/beverages & then sell it back to you for a profit.

If you can't take it, then pay corkage & bring your own or don't order the supermarket wine for $40.

BonnieinHolland
11:07:30 PM on
11/13/08

Restaurant wines here are marked up 2 to 3 times over retail, just like in the US, from my experience. Exceptions are places which will serve wines in quarter or half carafes, for example, instead of a bottle. Something that I have seen for the first time where I live is a newly-opened restaurant offering wines on their wine list for the same retail price as at the wine store from where the wines come...it's a very unique situation, I think, but maybe one that will catch on in these hard times? The trend for consumers here now appears to downgrade the amount they spend on wine. In the last three months, the average UK shopper has started to spend only 4 to 5 pounds on a bottle of wine instead of the usual 5 to 6. In Holland, I can imagine that it has also changed for purchases in wines shops, with folks spending less money now. (In grocery stores, most Dutch folks spend an average of 2,70 euros on a bottle of wine -- hard to go below that! In wine shops, it's different -- a Dutch shopper will then spend an average of about 6 euros on a bottle of wine, so perhaps those purchases are being downgraded now, like in the UK.)

esung1
05:39:23 PM on
11/13/08

When I worked at a wine shop, we had $5 bottles of wine. Some people would automatically say, no, $5 could not possibly buy you good wine. But go up just a few dollars to $8, and somehow, it made it ok. When people asked for inexpensive wines, they seemed open to bottles that cost $10-$15. But with the current situation, I'm not sure.

as for whether restaurants will lower prices, I'm not going to hold my breath. Unless they just want to move bottles along, they probably want to recoup whatever costs they paid for the bottles. And restaurants must get them at wholesale prices, right?

ChrisB2
03:39:06 PM on
11/13/08

Good question. I guess since we're paying 3x retail now, 2x would seem practically free. Kind of like when gas dropped back below $3!

But would 1.5x be asking too much? After all, are they paying retail or wholesale for their wine?

jamescury
02:46:44 PM on
11/13/08

Hey, I'm with you! You have to admit: All restaurants must mark up wine to some degree to pay for salaries, upkeep, utilities, and, yes, rent. But that's no excuse to overcharge. And maybe it's true that the markup is lower in Europe. I wouldn't know. In New York, and other major cities, the rent is disproportionately high. So that's the usual excuse for the 3X markup. My question still stands: What's a reasonable markup to you?

ChrisB2
02:24:52 PM on
11/13/08

I disagree with the author that restaurants need "the markup to pay the rent."

They need to markup wine by 300%? Really? How is it that restaurants in Italy, Spain, and France all have similar overhead to the US--rent is similar, meat and produce are similar, and actually their staff costs are greater, since they actually have to pay their waitstaff real salaries.....and yet prices for wine have very little markup over the retail price?